Approved unanimously at the January 11, 2008, chapter meeting:
Before the University cuts summer school, the University of South Florida should allow departments to explore alternative funding sources for summer 2008.
More information about this resolution will be available by the end of the weekend.
Update (January 17): Events overtook this. See the January 17 entry about the budget situation.
The United Faculty of Florida is conducting an election for the statewide office of UFF First Vice President. The elected candidate will fill the vacant office and serve the remaining term through August 14, 2009.
Two versions of the nomination form are attached. The file named “UFFVP-Fill-in-Nomination.pdf” has fill-in boxes that the member may type into and then print. The file named “UFFVP-print-Nomination.pdf” is a “camera-ready” document that you may use to reproduce multiple paper copies to distribute (has no visible fill-in boxes).
This spring, the Florida legislature required that businesses of a certain size (including USF) accommodate short leave requests of employees who have been the victims of domestic violence. Here is the information from USF:
Every semester, the chapter has the right to two consultations with the administration over matters that are not subjects of collective bargaining (i.e., issues that can be discussed outside collective bargaining sessions). Below are the topics that the chapter has identified thus far to be discussed at one of the two fall sessions (the first one is this Friday, October 19):
The next collective bargaining session is October 12, 3-5 pm, in SVC 2070. This is for the purposes of impact bargaining in response to the university’s raising class sizes. (Impact bargaining is when a union and management bargain over the impact of a managerial decision that is within managerial rights.)
Today at a 12:30 phone conference, the USF Board of Trustees finished the ratification of the reopener, after the April 20 ratification by the bargaining unit.
The next USF-UFF collective bargaining session is May 11, 2007, 3-5 pm, in EDU 258 & EDU 261.
The USF and UFF bargaining teams signed an agreement on the 2006-07 reopener Friday, April 13, 2007, as well as a brief memorandum of agreement on a study of parental leave. The reopener text is available online.
As I told the faculty union team in the past few days, I admire their fortitude through the year, and I consider this agreement an intermediary step towards addressing many of the issues raised in bargaining. The team during 2006-07 has included the following members:
UFF-USF – USF Board of Trustees Collective Bargaining Agreement 2006-2007
Vote on Your 2006-2007 Collective Bargaining Agreement at the union meeting on Friday, April 20, 2007, between noon and 1 pm, at Tampa campus in EDU 258 during the regular chapter meeting.
The United Faculty of Florida at USF and the USF Board of Trustees negotiators reached “tentative agreement†on the Salary Article and the Benefits Article of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on Friday, April 13, 2007. Additionally, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed that establishes a process to explore the development of a Paid Parental Leave program. See the text online at http://uff.ourusf.org/connections/REOPENER.doc.
All faculty and professional employees in the bargaining unit are eligible to vote to accept or reject the new CBA. If you vote “yes” to ratify, the new Agreement provisions will take effect immediately. Promotion Increases will be retroactive to 8/7/06, Merit Increases will be retroactive to 10/1/06, and Market Adjustment Increases will be retroactive to 1/2/07. Competitive Pay Increases have already been distributed.
If the unit votes “no” to ratify, negotiators must return to the bargaining table to renegotiate an agreement which is satisfactory to you. The UFF bargaining team and executive officers urge you to vote “yes†on this new CBA. A large faculty vote will convey to the Board of Trustees that we, the faculty, are seriously interested in our professional futures.
Due to the protracted process of bargaining this contract, timeliness in ratification is important if employees are to receive the salary increases before the end of this spring 2007 semester. For this reason, all voting will take place at the next meeting of the UFF-USF Chapter, from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2007 at Tampa campus EDU 258.
Much of our past Agreement has remained in place, and the complete text of the proposed changes to the Agreement is available online.
The proposed Agreement affects the terms and conditions of employment for Faculty, Librarians, and Other Bargaining Unit Members, and the Highlights are as follows:
The next collective bargaining session between the United Faculty of Florida and the USF Board of Trustees is Friday, April 6th, 2007, 2:30-5:30 pm, in EDU 413 and 416.